Manufacturers of large, heavy durable goods such as lawn and garden equipment, recreational vehicles, and appliances, package the goods in containers for handling, storing, and shipping the goods from manufactures to consumers. Often the containers with the goods are stored in warehouses waiting for distribution by trucks or other vehicles to retailers and to consumers. The containers are typically stacked in warehouses in order to conserve space, and generally are stacked four to six containers high. The crates must have strong tensile strength to permit shipping and storage of stacks of crates. Also, the upper units in stacked shipment exert large "racking" forces on the lower units. The racking forces a rise from the momentum of the upper units as truck trailers or rail cars change velocity, start, and stop. These forces tend to loosen the staples applied to the corners of the crates. Loosened staples reduce the rigidity of the crate and may cause the crate to collapse, causing damage to the product contained therein and may result in injury or safety hazards to persons nearby.
The structural components of the containers accordingly must allow for handling by specialized material handling equipment such as forklift trucks, clamp trucks and the like while also protecting the products held in the container. The container must provide for stacking, whereby top loads are transferred through the containers to the bases. Wood cleated corrugated paperboard containers such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,256 generally have meet the packaging needs of manufacturers of durable goods. The article, such as a tractor, sits on a rigid wood base which receives a wood cleat reinforced corrugated paperboard body. The body is formed from a blank of corrugated paperboard material folded on scores to define main panels. The ends of the blank join with adhesive to define a tubular body. The body folds on the scores to a knocked-down configuration. The body is squared-open on the assembly line and lifted over the tractor on the wood base. Staples secure the corrugated paperboard body to the wood base. While these cleated corrugated containers meet the needs for low cost containers having durability and load-bearing performance, added protection is required for use in outside, unprotected environments. These protections often involve water resistant coatings or other water repellant features to reduce the effects of moisture on the corrugated panels.
Some manufacturers of lawn and garden tractors and riding lawn mowers package the goods in wood cleated crates. Wood cleated crates are particularly suited for long term outside storage. Conventional wood cleated crates for packaging such articles typically are comprised of separate loose sides, ends, tops, and bases. These components are known in the trade as "crate shook". Two sides and two ends are used together with a base and a top for assembly of a wood cleated crate. The separate components are stapled or nailed together at the assembly line during packaging of the goods. This requires much assembly line labor, fasteners, and time. The crate-line personnel must keep up with the line speed to prevent backups or being overwhelmed with products for packaging. One problem with using crate shook on assembly lines is the consistency of assembly of the components to form a complete crate. The crating line personnel must quickly align edges of the components, hold the components in position, and use conventional air-held air staple guns to connect the components together.
Various crates have been proposed to overcome the need to assemble crate shook during packaging. One type of such crates is known as wire bound wood crates. The opposing sides and opposing ends are positioned side-by-side and strands of steel wire are stapled girth wise to the faces of the sides and ends. The strands of wire join the sides and ends together. Typically there are five to seven strands of wires which extend the full length horizontally across the two sides and two ends. Staples are used to attach the wires to the crate shook. The wire strands form "hinges" across the adjacent sides and ends. The hinges permit the mat to fold. The mat thereafter wraps around the base which supports the heavy article to be packaged. The final corners in the crate is formed by hand stapling the adjacent edges of the side and end or by being tied with wire twists. A top frame made of wood is then set in place and stapled to the crate.
Although wire bound wood crates minimize the stapling required to assemble the crate, there are disadvantages involved with using such crates. The wires are long and interfere with disposal and recycling efforts. Continuous wire strands make manufacturing of the mat easier but it is difficult and impractical to extract the hundreds of staples which secure the wires to the crate shook, in order to dispose of the wood components after the crate has served its purpose. The wires also make grinding the wood components impractical. Such wire bound crates accordingly must be burned or placed in land fills for disposal. Such disposal techniques are no longer environmentally satisfactory.
The wire bound crates are also difficult to handle while packaging. The crates are shipped as long mats which take up significant space in warehouses and delivery trucks. Each mat is manually folded around the base during packaging. Manual handling of the extended mats is difficult and awkward. The wire-type corners that define the hinges also are typically stiff and difficult to fold into squared-up corners. The resulting crates mis-alignments or angled components, may cause stacks of such crates to lean or even to fold.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for cleated crates which are free of such disadvantages while providing a wood cleated crate for packaging heavy goods on assembly lines. It is to the provision of such that the present invention is directed.